Page 29 of Right Number, Wrong Man

COLT

Her body reacts on instinct. The handcuffs rattle as she thrashes but I keep her under, pinning her in place with my weight. She’s so beautiful while she fights for her life, hair floating around her and bubbles rising to the surface.

My balls contract as I count the seconds, pressure surging through my stiff cock. I wrap my other arm around her, placing my palm on her diaphragm. When it starts to spasm, I’ll know she’s used up half of her air.

It’s a safety measure.

Under Cody’s guidance, I’ve developed a knack for cracking difficult interrogations and death is never the goal. Not at first. A dead informant doesn’t talk and I know how to keep ‘em alive.

The difference is that I’m torturing her because I love her. Because she wants it, too.

I pull Hailey up and she coughs, gasping for air.

Wet hair sticks to her face and water pearls from her lashes, running down her flushed cheeks to her plump lips.

She’s never been more radiant than in this moment as my willing victim.

It’s like witnessing a supernova. Blindingly gorgeous, the image of her searing itself into my memory.

I already have so many memories of her, but most of them aren’t real.

They’re scenarios I made up when the pain behind my ribs wouldn’t let me sleep at night and I laid awake in the dark, suspended in the liminal space between dreams and reality. Nights when my lungs burned with the memory of her perfume, my fingers ached with the remnant of her touch.

But this is real.

It’s really her skin beneath my fingertips, really her voice twisted by pleasure and fear as she whimpers. It’s really her scent mixing with the sweet aroma of her fresh sweat.

“Am I enough of a bastard for your liking?” I ask.

“Is that the worst you can do?” Hailey responds venomously, but when I yank back her head, she giggles and her nose does that cute crinkle thing.

Damn, this brat will be my downfall.

I bend her over the edge of the tub again. My hands drift across the full shape of her ass, spreading her cheeks, and I suck in a breath when my eyes land on her puckered rim.

There ain’t no way in hell I’m leaving tonight without claiming all her holes. So far, we’re at two of three.

“Where’s your lube?” I ask.

She nods over her shoulder. “Mirror cabinet over the sink.”

“Don’t move.”

I get up to grab the lube and stand behind her, freeing my cock from my pants. I dribble some on Hailey’s asshole, then I squirt a generous helping in my hand and coat my dick, shuddering as I thrust uncontrollably into my fist .

Keep it together, Colt. You don’t wanna blow your load into your hand, you idiot!

I hold her by the waist, my fingers digging into her flesh and Hailey groans. Good, I hope it hurts. I hope it’ll bruise. And tomorrow morning when I’m gone, she’ll still be wearing my mark.

The head of my dick presses against her asshole and I force myself into her in one reckless stroke. She cries out as her muscles pull me in, squeezing tight.

“It hurts! I’m so full…” she whines. “More, Sir, please!”

I grin and start thrusting, heat streaking through my length. I never had issues with stamina, but with her I gotta fight tooth and nail for every second.

I grab her head. “Breathe in.”

Hailey gulps down air before I push her underwater. Her ass grips me like a vise and I almost blurt out the forbidden three words—plus a few more, less traditionally romantic ones.

I love you, my freaky, dirty slut who gets off on me drowning her.

There’s no rhythm to my movements, just animal instinct and brutal claim. My mind blanks. All I know is that I have to possess her. Impale her. Fill her with my seed.

I let her get a breath and shove her under again immediately. She can take it. I know she can because she’s my girl. For tonight, she’s mine and I’m hers.

Her kidnapper. Her torturer. Her lover.

Her man.

The universe shrinks until there’s only this room. Only me and her. Only the seconds I count while I drown her and the slapping sounds of my hips meeting her ass. Only the feeling of her tight, hot asshole wrapped around my cock .

When Hailey comes up the next time, I whisper in her ear, “What a disturbed bitch you are. You love getting sodomized by a masked man while he drowns you, don’t you? I can feel how close you are… Come for Daddy.”

I dunk her head under and when she reaches her peak, I come, too.

Darkness creeps into my vision as I shoot my seed into her ass and I pull her up, worried I’ll pass out from the pleasure roaring through me. I sit on the floor, cradling her in my lap while she coughs.

The towel is soaked and there’s water everywhere. On the tiles. The wall. It seeps through my pants. It doesn’t matter. We’re still connected, and that’s all I care about, even when my cock softens inside her.

I brush the wet hair out of Hailey’s face and unlock the cuffs before softly slapping and rubbing her back. She collapses against me.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

She coughs again before she finds her hoarse voice. “I-I think so.”

“Are you dizzy? Got trouble breathing?”

“No. But that was terrifying …” She pauses, giggling quietly. “ And hot .”

“You’re a freak,” I tease.

Hailey scoffs. “Fucking a woman’s ass while drowning her is your kink. I just happened to be the innocent victim.”

“You’re far from innocent and that’s a damn compliment.”

She smiles broadly up at me. “I’ll happily accept it. Thank you very much.”

We sit in silence, catching our breath. As she starts to shudder and I slip out of her, it’s like a boulder the size of an elephant presses on my shoulders .

When we’re together, I try to live in the moment. I push my negative thoughts away to be who she needs me to be, but it all comes crashing down the second I lose her touch.

I zip up my pants and let the water out of the tub, turning the shower on hot for her. My heart cracks. This ain’t even about sex. I wanna drop the mask and get in the shower with her, wash her hair and run my fingers over her soapy skin.

But it can never be.

My alter ego Jax can’t be more than a hookup to her. And the real me can never be anybody but Colt, the asshole brother of her bastard husband.

“You need to warm up,” I say, holding out my hand.

Hailey takes it and I help her in the tub. “Thanks,” she responds happily before closing the shower curtain.

Her indifference feels like a hit to the gut and I hate that I was the one who had to suggest the just-sex-no-attachments-rule. It still hurts to see how little she cares.

I unlock the door and walk out into the hallway. In the kitchen, I pour a glass of water and leave it on the table with a small bottle of painkillers from my pocket. I was rough with her. She’ll need them later.

The menu of a Thai restaurant is stuck to the fridge door with a pink bow magnet, and the green curry is circled. I make a mental note. Can’t hurt to know her favorite food.

When the shower turns off, I skulk to the bathroom. Drowning play can be dangerous and I gotta make sure she’s fine.

I stick my head inside the steamy room and instantly start sweating under the mask again. “Still feeling alright?” I ask.

Hailey wraps her hair in a towel, water dripping off her rosy skin. “For a man who almost drowned me in my tub, you’re awfully concerned.”

My shoulders tense at her accusation. Does she think I was seriously trying to hurt her?

“I was always in control of the situation,” I growl and wince. In normal conversation, the voice modulator makes me sound like the wannabe villain out of a B-movie superhero parody. I’m not a big fan. They’d probably call me General Grief Boner.

“Sure,” she says and winks.

That’s when I realize she’s playing around.

Damn, when did I get so sensitive? Guess I’ve always been fragile when it’s about her. I’ve been told that I have a heart of stone, but Hailey can shatter it with a flick of her dainty finger.

“There’s painkillers and water on the kitchen table. Drink it all and take two pills,” I say.

“Yes, Daddy.” Smiling, she takes a blow dryer from a cabinet under the sink and plugs it in. “Thank you for tonight. It was… wow . No words, really. I hope we can do this again?”

“We will. Give me a call anytime if you’re feeling unwell. I’m heading out.”

“Okay,” Hailey says, contentment in her tone. She genuinely doesn’t give a damn if I stay.

Suddenly, I can’t breathe. When she turns on the blow dryer, I spin around and rush to the front door. Dizzy, I stumble down the stairs.

Tonight was only our first hookup, but I don’t know how many more times I can pretend not to care.